In the opening day of motions and legal maneuvers in the drunken-driving trial of Lincoln High basketball Coach David Adelman, defense attorney Steve Houze wasted no time before unveiling the intriguing back story behind Adelman's February arrest.

In a motion to dismiss, Houze argued the arrest was unlawful because Portland police did not have probable cause to stop Adelman as he exited the Taco Bell at Northwest 21st and Burnside.

What's more, Houze said, police were called to the scene by 9-1-1 calls from a private investigator, Debra Hennessee, who was hired to tail the basketball coach by a Lincoln parent unhappy with, among other things, his son's playing time.

Mike Layne, the attorney for that parent, Portland financier John Lekas, said his client would have no comment, but Layne confirmed he enlisted Hennessee, at Lekas' behest, to follow Adelman and call police when she caught him drinking, then driving.

"There was no other way to get the principal or the school board's attention on concerns about his drinking and behavior," Layne said at the end of a wild day before Multnomah Circuit Judge Jerome LaBarre.

"Steve Houze is a fabulous lawyer but he's doing everything possible to divert attention away from the fact that his client was stopped and blew a .14. There was nothing illegal about watching him and reporting him to the police."

Houze and Layne agree Hennessee made several calls to authorities in the five weeks before Feb. 21 to report Adelman was drinking. After the second call, Houze said, Officer Darke Hull pulled Adelman over but did not make an arrest.

On Feb. 21, Adelman left the Bullpen near PGE Park at 1:30 a.m. after drinking, or so he would later tell police, five beers. Hennessee, who, Layne said, was inside the tavern with the Cardinals' coach, immediately called 9-1-1 to report Adelman had "at least 10 drinks."

She called back several minutes later to report that Adelman was in the drive-thru lane at Taco Bell.

In arguing there was no probable cause for the stop, Houze made much of the fact that the first two cops at the scene both said they did not see the traffic infraction -- changing lanes without signaling -- that Officer Josh Sparks cited as his reason for stopping Adelman after he pulled out onto West Burnside.

But Houze also contended that police should have known Hennessee's surveillance was part of a campaign "to discredit, subvert, harass and ultimately cause the firing of David Adelman."

Also testifying Monday was Houston Rocket Coach Rick Adelman, who said he was so concerned by Lekas' animosity toward his son that he met with Lekas for 90 minutes last September.

"I thought I could reason with him," Rick Adelman said. "He basically told me David should not be coaching at the high school and he would do everything he could to get him fired."

"I have seen many disgruntled parents over the years," the Rockets' coach later wrote to Lekas in an e-mail, "but I have never seen anyone as vindictive as you."

While prosecutor Jeff Howes challenged the relevance of all this, Layne, who also wrote a 2008 letter to deputy District Attorney Norm Frink asking him to investigate Adelman, disputed the fairness of it.

"They want to paint this as being all about John Lekas' kid not getting playing time. That's not the issue," Layne said. "There were a lot of parents who were voicing those concerns and ended up with Rick Adelman paying them a visit.

"We have a lot of rich, arrogant people in this case," Layne said, "and they're not all on my client list."